Oceans For Emotions: Try something new

Today, I fished with the new reel my son had given me. I thought it was a nice way to begin the New Year.

It had really been a long time since I had had a new reel, because I firmly believed that my old one was simply the best reel ever made. Also, I firmly believed that just because something is old, it should not be discarded or replaced. I certainly didn't want my friends, family or fellow faculty associates thinking that old things had to be upgraded because, at my age, that was sort of scary.

Anyway, I liked my old reel. I had memorized it and knew each part by heart, and we could sing along together without looking at the words. I had never failed to use it, and it had never failed to work, so what was wrong with that? Old is good.

But just to make my son feel good, I got out the new rig he gave me, and to prove that I was not too old to change, I used it. I put on a 1-ounce slip weight, a No. 4 treble hook and a dead bait, and like the good old sport that I am, I flung it as hard as I could out into the arms of my waiting ocean.

I stood there waiting for the splash where I was expecting it to land, and nothing happened. I waited some more and just before I made some crack about "Old is better," I finally saw the water rip open way out there practically on the horizon. I thought that I had thrown the weight off because no human could have cast that far.

I started to reel in my obviously busted line, but I didn't think the reel was working because I couldn't hear it trying hard with gritty groans and growls, but almost effortlessly the bait came slicing back to me from somewhere just off the coast of Cuba.

That reel was too good to be true. As I repeated the process over and over all day long without feeling like I was casting my guts out, I realized that in many of my other ways of life, I had clung to the old just because I wouldn't try the new.

"New" takes getting used to, and one must carefully choose if new is better just because it is new, but I'm looking over my life at this New Year Time to see if other changes aren't OK, too.

Dear Lord, Thank you for my old reel so that I could tell how nice the new one is. Help us to be wise in our changes and with Your Grace, not be afraid to try new ways. Happy New Year, Lord.